Dish TV picture distorts

Dish TV certainly took the impact of demonetization on its chin and bottomline – we saw it in March and the impact continued onto Q4. That plus the lack of any major cricketing event during the Jan-March period and customers downgrading subscription packages led to this overall fall.

Its subscription revenue fell 11% (YoY) to Rs.620 crore and this led to a cascading effect downstream. Consolidated operating revenue was down 6% at Rs.709 crore and the company once again returned to losses – it posted a net loss of Rs.28 crore v/s profit of Rs.483 crore in previous Q4.

The only solace is that EBITDA continues to remain in the positive at Rs.190 crore, albeit down 27%. Margins were down from 32.6% to 26.9%. Apart from weak subscription revenues, a 4.5% rise in expenses and a 52% drop in other income contributed to the poor show.

The stock is currently the top loser on the BSE, breaching the 10% LC once at Rs.82.70 after which it slipped down further to Rs.81.30. Its 52-week low stands at Rs.76.90.